Televising Watts Joe Saltzman's Black on Black

10 Televising Watts Joe Saltzman’s Black on Black (1968) on KNXT JOSHUA GLICK Joe Saltzman’s Black on Black challenged staid conventions of broadcast journalism and ste reo typical repre sen ta tions of Watts when it premiered on Los Angeles station knxt on July 18, 1968. Shot in the thick of urban up- risings sweeping the country, the documentary took aim at prestige public affairs specials’ depiction of Watts as a site of poverty, a crime- ridden neighborhood, or a war zone. Saltzman, a white liberal documentarian from the nearby suburb of Alhambra in the San Gabriel Valley, sought to provide a platform for black residents to speak for themselves and to re orient mainstream tele vi sion audiences’ understanding of South Central Los Angeles. Black on Black portrayed Watts as a community of pe ople with deep ties to their neighborhood. Residents reflected on the meaning of black identity and spoke openly about their strug gles living within a city that marginalized their presence. Cinema and media studies scholars have written extensively on the tele- vi sion industry’s engagement with the Black Power movement, most often analyzing nationally broadcast situation comedies (Sanford and Son [nbc, 1972–77]), variety shows (The Flip Wilson Show [nbc, 1970–74], Soul Train [1970–2006]), and public affairs series (Black Journal [net, 1968–77]). How- ever, the expanding field of local programming constituted a crucial site of innovation and re sis tance to the whitewashed mainstream media.1 Black on Black directly addressed topics such as systemic racism and black cultural expression. Investigating Saltzman’s documentary demonstrates how social forces in Los Angeles shaped a national debate about the fraught relationship Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/chapter-pdf/790243/9781478005605-012.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 between minorities and the film and tele vi sion industry, as well as how this debate influenced on- the- ground media production and race relations in the city. The documentary was widely seen and discussed within Los An- geles and was broadcast in St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. But like many films primarily intended for local exhibition, it quickly fell out of circulation, only to resurface de cades later for occasional retrospectives.2 Black on Black’s enthusiastic reception in the news, entertainment, and African American press encouraged stations across the country to devote more resources to reporting on inner-cit y neighborhoods. At the same time, the documentary revealed broader tensions within cultural liberalism concerning the limited role of a film’s subjects in the conceptualization, creation, and outreach of the film itself. Just as Black on Black anticipated future tele- vi sion documentaries that took an in- depth and nuanced look at minority communities, it also marked a pivot within broadcasting institutions toward supporting proj ects where minorities asserted more authorial control in front of and behind the camera. Station Renegade Saltzman’s experiences as an undergraduate at the University of Southern California gave rise to his interests in alternative kinds of social documentary. Saltzman studied nonfiction with film critic Arthur Knight and also served as editor in chief of the school newspaper, the Daily Trojan. After pursuing a gradu ate degree in journalism at Columbia University, he re- turned to Los Angeles in 1962. Saltzman covered the crime beat for the San Fernando Valley Times and worked as news editor for the Palisadian Post. He then took a job at the cbs- owned and - operated station knxt as an in- terviewer and researcher for Ralph Story’s Los Angeles (1964–70), a popu lar magazine- style series that covered the city’s cultural milieu. For example, programs looked at the exotic decor of Clifton’s Cafeteria, the immigrant history of Boyle Heights, and the biographies of movie stars. Saltzman enjoyed the valuable training in on- location filmmaking; however, the fact that the series typically avoided pervasive issues of racism, government corruption, and displacement left him wanting to work on other kinds of programs.3 When the Watts Uprising erupted on August 11, 1965, it was depicted by print and broadcast journalists from the point of view of the police and city officials. This skewed portrayal heightened Saltzman’s conviction that tele- vi sion programming needed to address the views of the city’s minorities. While the protests were triggered by the arrest of the African American [218] Joshua Glick Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/chapter-pdf/790243/9781478005605-012.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 resident Marquette Frye at the intersection of 116th Street and Avalon Bou- levard, the unrest stemmed from a sense of injustice concerning the per sis- tence of police brutality, the choking off of public utilities from the neighborhood, exploitation by business owners, neglect by absentee landlords, and the lack of employment opportunities.4 Occurring only five days after the signing of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Act, which out- lawed discriminatory practices that disenfranchised minorities, the Watts Uprising signaled a rupture in the Great Society and prefaced the wave of nationwide street protests in cities throughout the late 1960s. In ktla’s Hell in the City of Angels (1965), the reporter Hugh Brundage describes the heated summer confrontations as “hoodlums” committing “indiscriminate” acts of “vio lence” that brought about rampant destruction. Flyover views from the station’s telecopter surveyed burning commercial es- tablishments along Avalon Boulevard, police officers dispersing crowds and making arrests, and individuals carry ing stolen objects moving quickly down alleys and sidewalks. In an interview within a bustling newsroom, camera- man Ed Clark spoke about Watts as a “war zone” that was “worse than Korea” and Mayor Sam Yorty confidently declared that the only effective way to meet the “mob” was with “overwhelming power.” Throughout the documentary, Watts residents were talked about rather than listened to. Coverage by ktla was consistent with the alarmist headlines of the Los Angeles Times, stories in Time and Newsweek, and Universal’s newsreel Troops Patrol L.A. (1965). The cbs Reports documentary Watts: Riot or Revolt (1965) reinforced the recently published Vio lence in the City—an End or a Begin- ning?, authored by Governor Edmund Brown’s Commission on the Los An- geles Riots. Members of the commission did not take seriously the fact that widespread police prejudice and excessive use of force was a direct cause of the tension and considered the uprising a detestable act of anger rather than a protest. In the documentary, Police Chief William Parker blamed members of the black community for the current crisis, stating that a criminal ele ment in Watts, stirred up by civil rights leaders, created unreasonable de- mands and had promoted widespread disrespect for law enforcement. The lack of black voices in the show resonates with how scholar Devorah Heit- ner describes public affairs programs of the era, in which an “emphasis on the expertise of people in power meant an overwhelming exclusion of Black points of view.”5 Saltzman proposed a documentary on South Central residents in which the film’s subjects would be the only voices heard. He believed that the program would be meaningful for black viewers as well as educational for white Televising Watts [219] Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/chapter-pdf/790243/9781478005605-012.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Angelenos who would constitute the program’s main viewing demographic. Saltzman thought that the documentary would increase awareness of and dialogue about what life was like for African Americans in South Central and urban Amer i ca more generally.6 But knxt rejected the idea, arguing that the absence of an in- house anchor would give viewers the impression that the station lacked control over its content. Flagrant racism also pre- vented the program from getting off the ground. The show was frequently called “Saltzman’s N***** Proj ect” by staff.7 It was not until 1968, when two factors contributed to a climate of media reform, that knxt greenlit the film. The first of these factors was a report issued by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and chaired by Illinois governor Otto Kerner. The report was the upshot of the Johnson administration’s July 27, 1967, mandate to explore the motivations behind four years of urban unrest.8 The Kerner Commission researched the mass media’s interpretation of these events and investigated the larger relationship between minorities and the film, tele vi sion, and newspaper industries. The document stated that these outlets “have not shown understanding or appreciation of—an d thus have not communicated—a sense of Negro culture, thought, or history.”9 The report elaborated on the need to bring more minority personnel into the culture industries and also claimed, “the news media must find ways of exploring the prob lems of the Negro and the ghetto more deeply and more meaningfully.”10 The second major factor involved the efforts of lawyers, advocacy groups, civil rights leaders, and entertainment personnel to make tele vi sion stations more responsive to their minority constituencies. Their fight led to a 1966 court case with the station wlbt in Jackson, Mississippi, that established the right of citizens to participate in a station’s license-ren ewal proceeding. A 1969 court decision stripped the same station of its license because of its failure to address the views of the area’s black community. Media historian Allison Perlman has argued that the wlbt case showed that a station’s rac- ist programming and lack of attention to minority audiences could serve as reason for revocation.11 This climate of media reform touched down in Los Angeles, the nation’s fastest- expanding multiracial metropolis that was also the country’s film and tele vi sion capital.

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